Craig, Miccosukees Serve Tennis In Style

MICCOSUKEE VILLAGE -- For three months this summer, tennis professional Shawn Craig led a double life.

During the week, he posed as the mild-mannered assistant teaching pro at affluent Coral Ridge Country Club in Fort Lauderdale and the Country Club of Coral Springs.

Mostly, his work at those places was typical tennis pro stuff. Craig, a member of the U.S. Professional Tennis Association, witnessed corporate moguls wager tens of thousands of dollars a day on the golf course. He grew accustomed to Porsches, Mercedes, Rolls Royces and BMWs. Club lunches and martini breaks became a part of life.

On weekends, Craig packed several tennis rackets and 200 tennis balls into his truck, drove 100 miles here to the Everglades and ministered to a completely different congregation -- Miccosukee Indian children.

Instead of the county`s best clay courts, Craig taught on asphalt. Instead of $300 rackets and $100 shoes, Craig`s students swung borrowed rackets and some didn`t wear shoes. If the asphalt got too hot, Craig just held up class until feet cooled down.

And when the lessons ended, the Miccosukee students trudged home to modest stucco houses overgrown with weeds and junk here in the heart of the Florida. Clearly, Shawn Craig was a long way from home.

``It`s really a trip coming out here to help,`` Craig said as he taught his final lesson at the Village last week. ``These kids have a lot of fun and are easy to work with.``

Craig`s work with the Miccosukees began as part of the U.S. Tennis Association Schools Program. Dale Larson, a physical education teacher at the Miccosukee school, called Barbara Braunstein of the USTA this spring and asked her to set up the program at the school.

``He said, `You say tennis is for all school children,` `` Braunstein remembered. `` `Is it also for Miccosukee Indians?` ``

Within weeks, Braunstein was at the reservation preaching the value of tennis.

``The children were very, very enthusiastic, very energetic,`` Braunstein said. ``I was impressed by their quickness to learn.``

The USTA Schools Program is designed to ``teach teachers to teach tennis,`` Braunstein said. The USTA and USPTA professionals leave the school after several weeks of lessons and turn over the tennis responsibilities to the school teachers.

Braunstein needed some help getting the program going. She asked USPTA division president Will Hoag of Coral Ridge whom he would recommend. Hoag offered Craig.

``Shawn was just wonderful with the kids,`` Braunstein said. ``The kids just loved to work with him. He was really a big hit.``

Elizabeth Osceola, 8, and Jolene Osceola, 10, were two of Craig`s prize students. The two are just like children everywhere, so Craig felt quite at home with them, except in one respect.

``Sometimes they start talking in Miccosukee to each other,`` he said. ``I don`t what they`re saying. I teach a lot of kids this age and these girls are as good or better than any of those. You don`t have to be a great player to teach these kids.``

Eventually, responsibilities at Coral Ridge began to pile up for Craig. He had to end his weekly visits to the Miccosukees. He scheduled his last lesson for mid-August before school started.

Before he got to the reservation for the final lesson, a member of the tribe called and told him that another member had died and that the whole tribe would not be allowed physical activity. The reservation had entered a mourning and religious cleansing period.

Craig eventually rescheduled for mid-September. This time he made it all the way to the reservation on a Saturday morning. When he arrived, everything seemed normal. Airboat rides went off on schedule, motorists wandered in and out of the restaurant and tourists marveled at the thatched roofs on the Miccosukee huts.

When he got to the tennis courts, though, nobody showed up. Again, a tribe member had died, forcing a religious cleansing period and eliminating tennis lessons.

``What can you do about something like this?`` said Craig as he packed his gear back into his truck. ``Obviously their traditions are more important than tennis.``

Finally, on the last Saturday in September, Craig gave Elizabeth and Jolene their last professional lesson. The teachers at the school are to take over. However, because of the nature of Miccosukee education, Braunstein isn`t sure the USTA program will continue. Miccosukees don`t consider an education essential. Children can drop out anytime they want.

``Their life is more unstructured than ours,`` she said. ``Their whole system is a little bit different.``